Baby Surprise in Costa Rica by Sophie Pembroke

Author:Sophie Pembroke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-01-20T21:23:56+00:00

* * *

He knew the question was coming from the look on her face—as if she was steeling herself against a knockback.

‘What about you? You said there was nothing left for you in acting. But do you miss it, all the same?’

Did he miss it? He could barely even remember it.

Liam looked away, staring out over the balcony into the rainforest, letting the sounds of nature around him fill the silence.

He didn’t want to answer her question, but he knew he owed her some reciprocal sharing. She’d spilled her secrets, helped him understand why she wasn’t searching for a happily ever after to go with the baby he’d accidentally gifted her. And he did understand. Trust, once lost, was the hardest thing to regain.

She’d lost faith in love, in family, in people in general—of course she wasn’t going to be looking to take another chance on love.

But he’d lost faith in himself. And he didn’t know how to explain that to her.

‘I don’t miss it, exactly,’ he said, searching for the right words. ‘It’s more like it was a part of my life I barely recognise any longer.’ He sure as hell didn’t recognise the person he’d been back then—and he didn’t want to.

‘So you really won’t ever go back to it?’

The wistfulness in her question surprised him. ‘Why? You a fan?’

‘Isn’t everybody?’ She raised her eyebrows at him across the table. ‘You were kind of a star.’

‘And that was the problem.’ He didn’t want to tell her. But he owed her some sort of explanation for his lifestyle choices—as the mother of his child, if nothing else. He sighed and groped for the right words. ‘I liked being a star far more than I enjoyed acting. I liked the attention, the parties. The drink and the drugs. The chance to live the wild, uninhibited life I thought I was entitled to.’ God, how he hated to think of the man he’d been back then.

Jenny stayed silent, waiting for him to continue, which he appreciated. Getting this out was hard enough. Dealing with questions about it would be impossible.

‘I was an idiot. Worse. I was all those bad words you can’t say on screen if you want a family-friendly rating. And I couldn’t even see it.’ He reached for the jug of water with slices of citrus fruits in that sat at the centre of the table and poured himself a glass. ‘Other people tried to tell me—Josh, especially. But I couldn’t hear them over my own ego. I was living the kind of life I thought film stars were supposed to live. And then I met Julie.’

She’d been an actress too, of course. He was a film star; who else was he supposed to date? She’d been blonde and beautiful and waif-thin for the cameras—and she’d liked to party as much as he had. He’d thought he’d loved her, believed it through the fog of alcohol and partying, but some days he wondered whether they’d just fallen down into the same hole together and that was the only thing that kept them as a couple.

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